


A Brand New World

by lxokqbrh



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Peter Parker, Hydra Peter Parker, May is Dead, Peter Parker Acts Like a Spider, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:41:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21656167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lxokqbrh/pseuds/lxokqbrh
Summary: When the Avengers raid yet another Hydra base, what they don't expect to find is a fifteen year old kid with freaky spider powers. And the last thing they expect is for that very kid to worm his way so deeply into their hearts.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 328
Collections: Peter Parker Stories, ellie marvel fics - read





	1. Chapter 1

A tingling in the back of his head was his first sign that something’s off. He’d felt the tingling before, referring to it in his head as his “spider sense,” in fact he felt it nearly all the time, with it spiking during the torture his captives called experiments that he’d endured for as long as he could remember, but it had never been this intense. There was just one memory, a snippet really, of him with two older people he assumed to be his parents, both of them holding him, crying, telling him that they loved him. It was the only thing that’d kept him sane through all of his years here—well, sane might be a bit of a stretch, or a lot of a stretch, considering he’d adopted many of the mannerisms of a spider, including crawling on all fours (at least it wasn’t all eights…), on the floor, the walls, even the ceiling and shooting webs his body produces out of his wrists. He figured if his only name was “The Spider,” he might as well live up to it.

The memory quickly faded from his mind when the alarms started blaring just moments after the tingling started. Crawling to the door of the tiny cell that was his home, which was littered with webs and included a sort of web-hammock toward the back corner where he would sleep, through the tiny window he saw the guards normally stationary outside his room rushing through the hall, eventually leaving his cell unguarded. Spying his opportunity, he shot a web above the doorway and pushed himself as far away into the upper corner of the room as possible before kicking off the wall and swinging toward the door, kicking it right off its hinges. He’d always been careful to hide the true extent of his powers from his captors, including his super-strength, figuring that ignorance might come in handy someday. He was always deliberate in allowing a few hits to make their way through during fight training. In his room, he was constantly honing his remarkable agility, swinging and flipping around gracefully yet wildly through the tangle of webs. Today was looking to be that day.

Seeing the hallway empty, he crawled along the ceiling in the direction he knew led to the main hall with the elevators. Unfortunately, whatever caused the guards in his hall to panic wasn’t distracting all of them, because there were still six stationed in the main hall, all armed with assault rifles. Thankful for the high ceilings, which allowed him to remain unseen, he crawled along until he was directly above one of the guards. Shooting a web from his wrist, he stole the gun from one of the guards and swung it towards another, launching it into his skull, immediately knocking him unconscious. But with one down and one unarmed, there were still four left who immediately started shouting and spraying bullets toward him. Weaving his way through the stream of bullets, he launched another web onto the foot of the guard he had unarmed and dragged him along the floor, toppling over two of the others, before he webbed all three to the ground.

For once, he was actually grateful for the combat training they had forced him through. Two armed guards was nothing to him. He shot down from the roof, extending his two fangs, and bit the first guard on the arm who squealed in pain before collapsing to the ground. He swung a kick toward the final guard who fell just as easily. Before long, he had six bodies all webbed up and unconscious, though the one he bit would soon be dead from his venom. Spying the vent which led to the elevator shaft, he dashed toward it and started to crawl up to the very top. He took a deep breath before shooting through the top vent that let out to the hall which would lead him to freedom, knowing it would likely be teeming with guards. He had no idea whether he would be able to make it past them all. It would either be freedom or death. Frankly, either sounded better than the predicament that was almost his entire life. Gathering his courage, he shot through the vent, landed crouched on the floor, and immediately froze. The hall was littered with the bodies of unconscious or maybe dead guards, and, in the middle, stood the strangest bunch of characters he had ever seen. There was a guy in a red and gold metal suit; a dude in a blue and red suit with a ridiculous looking leather helmet and shield; probably the most badass girl he’d ever seen, wearing all black with short red hair and wielding two pistols; a terrifying guy with a metal arm; and another dude holding a bow and arrow of all things. They had taken out the guards for him, but they still stood between him and freedom. He crouched into a much less confident fighting stance.

For a moment, nobody moved. The red and blue guy was the first to speak. “Uh, guys, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

* * *

Tony yawned exaggeratedly, while he listened to Steve outline the plan yet again. There was only one way in or out that they could find, so they were all sticking together at least until they got inside, while Bruce waited in the plane until he was either called in to pick them up or called in as a Hulk-shaped wrecking ball if they got into trouble.

“Tony, it’d be nice if you paid attention for once. From what we know, this is looking to be a big bust, and we don’t know what to expect yet.” Fury had come to them the day earlier saying they’d discovered a major HYDRA base in some remote part of Canada, where they were developing some sort of a weapon.

“Look, Cap, all I’m saying is that I think we all got the gist of it the first dozen times you explained it, am I right?” He looked around the room. Natasha and Bucky were both glaring at him, but Clint shrugged looking like he at least somewhat agreed. “See? Clint gets it.” Steve just shook his head, before turning to Bucky.

“Buck, how are you feeling?” He stared at the ground for a moment before responding. It was no secret that this one was personal for Bucky, considering he had been turned into a weapon for HYDRA as well. Fury had even tried to convince him not to come, but he was not having that.

“Let’s just remember that this weapon is just as likely to be a ‘who’ as it is a ‘what,’” he said, more quiet than usual. Cap looked at him in concern for a moment before nodding.

“Good point. We don’t know what we’re up against yet, so we need to stay on our toes.” Tony sighed. It was far too early for this.

“We’re five minutes out!” Bruce called from the cockpit. 

“Alright,” Cap called out, “let’s suit up and get ready.” A grumbling Tony stepped into his Iron Man suit which folded seamlessly around his body, while Clint strapped his bow to his back, Natasha loaded her utility belt with knives and pistols, Steve grabbed his shield, and Bucky loaded his assault rifle. The Quinjet slowed and descended as it neared the base, until it hovered just a few feet in the air, and the hatch at the back of the plane opened up, allowing the Avengers to jump to the ground. The base didn’t look like much from the surface, just a boring-looking, relatively-small concrete building, but their limited intel explained that the majority of the base was underground. From their position by the treeline that surrounded the base, they were able to see four heavily-armed guards stationed outside of the large metal entrance.

“Clint, find a vantage point where you’ll have a clear shot. Natasha, get close without being spotted. Let me know when you’re in position, and I’ll give you the signal. We need to take them out quietly, without allowing them to sound the alarm. Once we’re inside, we likely won’t have a choice, but until then, let’s keep it quiet.” Steve relayed. Clint and Natasha both nodded, before darting off in opposite directions. The rest of the team waited quietly. Well, Tony tried to start conversation but was quickly shushed and eventually resigned himself to impatiently tapping his foot and humming AC/DC. A few minutes later, Clint’s voice came in through their earpieces informing them that he was in position, and Natasha did the same thirty seconds later. “Now,” Steve said firmly.

A shadow moved behind the guards to the right of the door, while silent arrows launched toward the guards on the left. Within ten seconds, the guards were all on the ground, none of them having had the opportunity to make a sound. The team jogged their way to the base, meeting Clint and Natasha at the entrance. Tony made his way to the keypad and stuck a small metal device onto it.

“Friday, I need you to get us inside.”

“Right away, sir,” the voice in his suit replied. After a few moments, the red light on the keypad flashed green, and the metal door slid open. The guards inside immediately started shouting when their eyes fell on the team in front of them, and before long, there was an alarm blaring throughout the concrete halls of the facility. The Avengers swept inside the building and went to work, as they had done countless times before, careful to dodge the bullets which had started flying toward them. Each of them knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses as well as their own and worked flawlessly as a team. Even Bucky, the newest member of the team, had caught on incredibly quickly.

There were dozens of guards inside, but none of them stood a chance. Cap launched his shield toward the nearest guard, which rebounded off his chest and flew straight back into his hand, after knocking the guard unconscious. Clint stayed near the entrance and loaded arrow after arrow into his bow, shooting them with pinpoint accuracy toward the furthest guards. Bucky marched confidently forward, peering through his gun’s sight, while bullets erupted from the barrel, tearing down the HYDRA agents in front of him. Tony and Natasha both rushed forward, Natasha on the ground, Tony in the air. He launched repulsor blasts from his hands, frying the agents, while their bullets ricocheted off his suit leaving little more than a few scratches. She slunk through the hall, dual-wielding pistols which she emptied into the guards. By the time she needed to reload, she was close enough to go hand-to-hand, and in one motion, she holstered her guns, whipped out her knives, and went to town.

Five minutes later, they stood back and admired their handiwork. Bodies were scattered all through the hall and entry chamber, some unconscious, most dead.

“Well that was fun,” quirked Tony.

“Remember, there’s likely to be a whole lot more of them when we get down to the real base.” Steve made sure to remind them all. “Let’s get moving.” But before they could take a step, the vent above the elevator launched from its hinges, and a figure sprung out from the hole it left. The figure twisted and flipped in midair, before landing flawlessly, crouched. The newcomer’s eyes darted around the room, taking in the scene in front of him, before they landed on the Avengers, and a confused look swallowed his face.

“Uh, guys, are you seeing what I’m seeing?” The team stood looking into the face of not a man, but a boy who couldn’t have been older than sixteen. He had brown curly hair and was wearing what looked like a gray prison uniform, with the word “SPIDER” sewed into the chest.

“He’s just a kid,” remarked a stunned Clint.

“Regardless of how old he is, that was undoubtedly the most badass entrance I’ve ever seen,” said Tony, but his comment didn’t even earn so much as a groan, with the rest of the team entirely focused on the boy in front of them.

“Is he supposed to be the weapon?” asked Natasha, hesitantly. It took a lot to remove the confidence from her voice, but the boy seemed to be enough.

“Yes.” Bucky said, definitively. The gray suit brought up horrible memories of his time with HYDRA, being turned into a weapon.

“Well what the hell are we supposed to do now? It’s not like we can kill a kid!” Clint practically shouted. At the word “kill,” the boy seemed to snap out of his confusion and assumed a more confident fighting stance, low to the ground, while letting out what sounded like a hiss. The team started to draw their weapons again, but Tony impulsively stepped forward and threw his arms out.

“Wait! Clint’s right. He’s just a kid. He can’t be that dangerous yet.” He remembered the look of confusion when his eyes fell upon the Avengers. “He was trying to escape. He was ready to fight the guards, not us. If he wanted to attack us, he would’ve done it already.”

“Tony…” Natasha warned, but Tony shushed her and took another step forward. As soon as his foot hit the cement, the boy launched forward with incredible speed and landed a kick directly in the center of Tony’s metal-covered chest but didn’t follow up the attack. Tony stumbled backward, and the rest of the team drew their weapons.

“Stop!” Tony cried, regaining his balance, but it was too late. A bullet fired from Natasha’s gun and tore through the thigh of the boy in front of them. He let out a strangled hiss, as he collapsed onto his knee. “What the hell, Nat?!”

“What did you expect me to do? He attacked.” Nat said back calmly.

“That wasn’t an attack—he was warning me! He didn’t follow up, which meant he just didn’t want me to come closer!” Their attention shifted again to the boy, who was focused on the bullet wound. He moved his arm in front of the hole, when something white shot out of his hand and covered the hole, and he did the same to the exit wound. Clint jumped back in shock.

“Whaa! Did you see that? Dude just shot super glue from his hands!” He shouted.

“Kid,” Tony called toward the boy. His head snapped up, and his face was now covered in fear. “Can you understand me?” He jerked his head rigidly in what looked like a nod. “Can you speak?” He nodded again. “Good. Now, if you come with us, we can fix up that leg of yours.”

“Tony…” Natasha muttered through gritted teeth.

“What, Nat?! You just shot the poor kid, and now you want to leave him here?” Guilt washed over Natasha, while Tony turned his attention back to the small figure in front of him. Looking at him closer, he seemed to be unnaturally thin, and Tony could see large, dark circles under his eyes. “Look, kid, we won’t hurt you.” Then the most unexpected thing yet happened: the boy laughed, then gestured toward his leg. The sound was the most bizarre yet welcome contrast to the scene around them. Tony smiled. “Alright, fair enough. I promise we won’t hurt you anymore than Nat over here already has. We can help you. Now, can you come with us?” Tony asked, extending a hand toward the boy, careful not to step forward, instead letting the boy come to him. Fear made its way back into his eyes, and his body went rigid. After a few tense moments, the fear turned to wariness, and the boy began to crawl forward. The Avengers stood amazed at how well the boy was able to move, considering he just took a bullet to the leg. Nonetheless, he was still limping and stumbling as he made his way toward Tony, before placing a small hand in his. The boy flinched when his skin met Tony’s, but he didn’t retract his hand. “Thanks, kid. We’re here to help you.” Tony turned to face the rest of the group. “You guys think you can clear the rest of the base while I take him to the ship?” They all nodded, but they were all shocked when a small voice rose up.

“None left.” Everyone turned to face the boy, who still had his head pointed toward the floor.

“What do you mean?” Asked Steve.

“Took out the ones downstairs.” The boy replied, hesitantly.

“Wait, how many were there?” Tony asked, suddenly worried.

“Just six. Most came up here.”

“You took out six armed guards by yourself?” The boy just shrugged, and everyone went silent.

“Okay, scratch what I said earlier about him not being dangerous,” Tony said. “Let’s amend that to not dangerous to us. You all should still go down there. Grab whatever information you can find.” He added. The team watched as Tony made his way down the hall back toward the entrance, his arm supporting the limping boy, who was still scrambling on all fours.

“Question: how the hell is that kid still walking after being shot in the leg?” Clint asked, bewildered by the encounter.

“Because he’s endured much worse.” Bucky said, quietly. He had been eerily quiet since the boy showed up. Steve put a hand on his shoulder.

“We’ll split up, two and two, when we get down there. I’d like to get out of here as quickly as possible, but we still need to be thorough. I’ll stick with Buck. Clint, Natasha, grab any information you can find, and meet us back up here in thirty.”

Fifteen minutes later, Clint and Natasha were walking through a thin hallway in the underground part of the base.

“Um, Nat?”

“What?”

“You know how the kid’s suit said “spider” on it?” Clint asked.

“Sure, why?”

“I’m starting to think it’s not just a nickname.” Natasha turned around to see Clint staring through an open doorway with his mouth hanging over. The door laid bent in a nearly ninety degree angle on the other side of the hallway. Moving closer to see what Clint had found, she froze in her steps when she looked through the doorway. It was like an immense cobweb covered the entire room. There was a thicker sort of pod-type thing near the back.

“What the hell,” Natasha muttered under her breath.

“And the door. Could he really be strong enough to knock a solid metal door to a prison cell clean off its hinges?”

“Apparently.” Natasha replied, uneasiness growing inside her. “Let’s hurry. I’m starting to wonder whether we should have left him with Stark.” Clint quickly nodded his agreement, and the two hustled down the hall, checking any rooms they came across.

Meanwhile, Bucky hadn’t said another word.

“I’m sorry you had to be here, Buck.” Steve muttered to his friend, eager to break the silence that had settled over them. Bucky shrugged back at him.

“Who knows? Maybe this is just another part of healing,” Bucky replied, though the sarcasm was evident in his tone. Steve had forced him to start seeing a therapist a few months back, and he was still bitter about it. Cap sighed as they turned into the next room.

“Jackpot.” Steve said, ignoring his friend’s response. The room was covered in monitors, and it looked like this was the main datacenter for the base. He stuck one of Stark’s high-capacity smart drives onto the terminal and began to download everything. The drive also introduced a virus into the system that would erase all data from the HYDRA computers once it had been copied. It was likely the data existed elsewhere, but it was worth a shot. The download completed, and the two quickly marched from the room and headed back toward the elevator, completing their loop. The surface-level floor was shaped like a ‘T’ with the entrance at the base, stairs on either end of the top bar, and an elevator where the two lines met. The pairs had each taken one of the staircases.

They made their way toward the main room with the elevator and found that Clint and Natasha had beaten them there.

“Oh God,” Steve whispered. The four stood gaping at the scene in front of them. There were six guards, like the kid said, and they were most certainly taken out. Five of the agents were stuck to the ground by some sort of sticky silk and looked like they wouldn’t be waking for quite a while. The final agent was painful to look at. His body was soaked in blood, which seemed to be leaking from his ears, nose, mouth, and some puncture wounds on his arm. “I don’t like this. We need to get to Stark now.”

“Agreed,” Clint replied. Steve could barely make out Bucky mumbling something about  _ deserving worse _ before they dashed for the elevator. Once back to the surface, they sprinted through the entrance hall, through the doors, and toward the jet. On board, they breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that everyone was okay. The kid was lying on a bed, his back propped up against the wall, while Bruce bandaged his leg. Tony stood over them watching.

“Well you haven’t missed much,” Tony said, when he heard the others climb aboard. “The kid hasn’t said another word, and  _ fortunately _ ,” he emphasized with a glare toward Natasha, “the bullet didn’t do too much damage. Kid definitely has a healing factor of some kind. Now, tell me you got the goods.” Steve nodded and held up the flash drive.

“We’ve got their whole system.”

“Good,” Tony replied curtly.

“Alright,” Bruce said, “I’ve done about all I can do here. Once we get back to the tower, I’ll clean it again and redo the bandages, but this’ll have to do for now.” The six Avengers gazes moved to the boy who seemed to shrink into the wall when he noticed all their eyes upon him. The fear they had seen before in his face came back with full force, and he started to whimper as tears formed in his eyes.

“Hey, kid—” Tony started but was cut off by Bruce.

“I think we should leave him alone for a while, let him rest. He’s clearly overwhelmed, and a bunch of attention would likely just make it worse.” Tony started to protest, but, seeing the look on the boy’s face, decided it was probably for the best. The team moved into the cockpit, leaving the boy on the bed, while Bruce eased himself into the pilot seat and started their flight back. For the first few minutes, the team flew in silence. Even Tony’s witty banter was kept to a minimum, but eventually he had to break the quiet.

“So fill me in. What’d you find down there?”

“It looks like he’s a mutant of some kind—or a hybrid, something,” Clint started. “Nat and I found where they were keeping him. It was a tiny cell, but the whole thing was covered in webs. He might really be part spider.”

“He also might be much more dangerous than any of us are giving him credit for,” Steve added. “The men he took down, we found them. Five were just unconscious—thoroughly, but they were alive. The sixth, well, I don’t know what he did to him, but it was awful.”

“Of course he’s dangerous,” Bucky immediately interjected. “It’s HYDRA, and we all know what they do to people, me more than most. What doesn’t make sense is why he isn’t more so. He’s not a machine. He didn’t want to attack us. He was afraid. HYDRA crushes the humanity out of their prisoners.” Steve put his reassuring hand back on his shoulder.

“Buck, you’re living proof that they can’t truly destroy a person.”

“But a kid! He’s a kid! He shouldn’t be able to withstand it all. It doesn’t make sense!” Bucky wasn’t sure why he was so adamant about this. Maybe there was a part of him that was jealous. Maybe if he had been stronger, he would’ve been able to get away.

“Bigger question here: what the hell are we planning on doing with him?” Clint had kids, and he could see them reflected in the boys terrified eyes. Granted, this was a very, very different type of kid, but he was a kid nonetheless. “It’s not like we can just ship him off to some orphanage.”

“You said he took out six guys?” Tony asked to no one in particular.

“No, Tony—” Natasha saw where this was going.

“Hear me out! We got a guy who’s a damn good fighter and doesn’t want to kill us. Those are pretty much the only ingredients for an Avenger.”

“We’re not recruiting a child!” Natasha shouted back at him.

“It’s not the worst idea, actually.”

“Clint!” Natasha couldn’t believe her best friend on the team was actually siding with Tony.

“Listen, I don’t know about being an Avenger, but we could keep him at the tower. There’s no safer place for him to be,” he concluded. Nat didn’t like it, but she couldn’t help but admit that it made sense. She was also still feeling guilty for shooting the kid… Bruce decided it was about his time to butt in.

“We can figure out the logistics later, but we should probably check on him. Based on what I saw earlier, I highly doubt he’s actually resting. Despite what we told him, he doesn’t feel safe, and he’s not about to let his guard down.” The team made their way back to the main cabin, where the spider-kid seemed to have taken it upon himself to make the place more like home. He had strung some sort of silky hammock up above the bed they had left him in and was sitting in it, staring at them.

“One prison to another, then?” The voice was slightly louder, more confident than it was when they were still in the HYDRA base. The avengers were still gawking at the web when he spoke.

“Wait, how the hell did he hear us?” Tony asked, astounded. There was no way he could have heard them all the way through the metal doors that blocked off the cockpit, but the boy just tapped his ear with a finger and a mischievous grin on his face. What amazed Bucky more than anything was that the boy seemed to have somehow come out with a sense of humor and was using it even now when it probably seemed to him that he was being kidnapped.

“Listen, you wouldn’t be a prisoner,” Clint tried to assure him, accepting the fact that he must have heightened senses. “You would be living with us, not under us, as an equal.” The kid cocked his head in confusion, but then the apprehension left his body.

“Okay.” This was perhaps the most stunning thing to happen yet. After all that, he was just going to accept it?

“Wait, you’re just cool with that?” Tony asked, not believing what he was hearing. The boy shrugged.

“You don’t mean danger.” The statement was true, but it didn’t make sense that he would know that. They were six strangers who had shot him and effectively kidnapped him, even if it was from a prison. He had already proven that he was suspicious of them, so why was he accepting it now.

“How do you know?” Tony asked, letting his curiosity get the best of him. It wasn’t a very reassuring question, but he had to know. The boy shrugged again. It was getting to be a habit.

“I feel danger. I don’t feel it in you.” No one was sure exactly what that meant, but there were bigger questions at the moment.

“Alrighty then,” Tony said, thinking his next inquiries might give him his answer. “Before that happens, we’ll need to ask you some questions.”

“Shoot.”

“Name.”

“Spider.”

“That’s not a name.”

“It’s mine.”

“Age.”   
  
“No idea.”

“How long have you been with HYDRA?”

“Long as I can remember.”

“What are your abilities?” The boy was quick to answer so far, but he seemed to hesitate at this one.

“All of them?” He asked.

“All of them.” The boy sighed, before listing them off.

“Heightened senses, sixth sense that alerts me to danger, increased strength and agility, healing factor, extendable fangs that inject venom, I can stick to anything, I make webs… probably some others that I’m forgetting.” Everyone in the room was speechless, but it certainly answered many of their questions. He could hear them in the cockpit because of his super-hearing. He knew they were safe because of his ability to sense danger. He must have killed the guard by injecting his venom.

“That’s quite the list,” Tony finally concluded.

“I’m quite the specimen,” Spider remarked, before continuing through gritted teeth, “or so they told me.”

“Well you’re never going back there. That’s a promise,” Steve assured him. He had grown much more comfortable with Spider once he started talking. Meanwhile, Natasha was awkwardly fidgeting in the back of the group and figured she would have to speak up at some point.

“And, uh, sorry about—you know…” she said, gesturing to his leg. She hated apologies. But the boy just grinned at her.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m not always great with first impressions either. It’ll be nothing but a scar by tomorrow anyway. And trust me, I’ve been through much worse…” The smiles the team wore when he started talking quickly dissipated with the last sentence. Bucky stomped out of the room.

“I’ll go check on him,” Steve said, before hurrying out after him.

“Geez, am I that creepy? Sweet metal arm though.” Spider quipped. It came naturally to him. It was his only form of rebellion when strapped down to a table with scalpels butchering his body.

“I mean, you are kinda creepy before you start talking,” Clint replied. Spider chuckled softly.

“Yeah, what did it? Was it the crawling?” He asked with a smile.

“Yes! What the hell is up with that?” Clint asked. He was starting to like this kid.

“Well, it started as a joke to spite them. They were always wanting me to be more like a spider. I’m pretty sure they were expecting me to grow a bunch of extra legs and eyes or something. I figured I might as well give them what they wanted. Eventually, it just grew to be more natural than walking.” Even if it did result in longer torture sessions, he was quite proud of it.

“And the webs?”

“Oh yeah. Well that one isn’t really a joke. That one didn’t happen for a couple years after—anyway, they kept torturing me, trying to get me to make webs, but I didn’t know how.” Spider shuddered at the memory. He couldn’t smile his way through this one. “For a while, I noticed my wrists were becoming red, and then one day there were these slits on them,” he held up his left wrist and pointed to the thin hole. “And I could just do it, like it was second nature. Also, these beds are pretty damn comfortable. I’d make you one, but you’d probably get stuck…”

“Speaking of which, how the hell am I supposed to get this stuff down?” Tony asked angrily.

“If you’re nice, I’ll give you the formula to dissolve it,” Spider said with a smirk.

“You’re seriously planning on blackmailing the people you thought were kidnapping you not ten minutes ago?”

“I’d know if you were going to hurt me.” Spider reminded him, which caused Tony to groan.

“I feel like that’s cheating.”

“I think I deserve to bend the rules a bit after getting out of that shithole.” Spider said, anger suddenly bubbling up inside of him. Tony sighed. He was probably right.

The rest of the flight went smoothly, with the Avengers all taking the time to introduce themselves. After a while, Spider seemed to grow tired and reverted back to his silent state. Eventually, he curled up on his web and fell asleep.

Tony muttered to himself as he gazed at the boy in the white silky hammock, “what the hell are we going to do with this kid?”


	2. Chapter 2

“Shit.” After the kid fell asleep, Tony started to filter his way through the flashdrive that Steve recovered from the base with the help of Friday, starting with any information on the kid they recovered.

“What is it, Tony?” Natasha asked.

“Even outside of the facility, this kid’s life would’ve been a nightmare.” Tony took a deep breath. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing in front of him.

“You found out who he is then?” Steve butted in.

“Yep,” Tony said, popping his lips at the end of the word. “Name’s Peter Parker. Fifteen years old.”   
  
“Peter…” Clint muttered to himself. “It fits him.”

“His parents were Richard and Mary Parker. Richard was a scientist studying cross-species genetics as a treatment for terminal illnesses. HYDRA found out about it and arranged a plane crash which killed both of them. They got his research, which included genetically engineered spiders. They stole his kid and used him as their test subject. He was four at the time.” The room went quiet, and a heavy atmosphere settled over the group. They’d been on dozens of missions together, but they had never come across anything like this.

“Does he have any living family we should know about? They’d probably want to know,” Clint suggested.

“Fri, run a check on any living relatives of Parker,” Tony ordered. After a few moments, the AI responded.

“It appears, sir, Mr. Parker’s last two relatives, Benjamin and May Parker, were killed in a mugging a few years ago,” the AI responded. The room went silent, until Clint felt a drop of something wet land on his hand.

“What the…” Clint turned his head toward the ceiling and let out a high-pitched squeal when he saw the kid they were just discussing stuck to it. Seeing that he was spotted, the newly-named Peter dropped to the ground, causing everyone else to jump back in surprise.

“Christ, kid, you can’t just do that…” Tony trailed off when he noticed the wet lines running down Peter’s face. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Peter shot back, a bit too quickly. “Just glad to see that someone enjoys my films,” he said, with a gesture to the holographic monitor behind Tony. The team turned to look at it and saw a list of videos, the thumbnails showing a nearly-naked Peter strapped to a table and covered in blood. Tony put his hand up over his eyes. This was already turning into a disaster, and he had no clue how to handle a mutated, snarky teenager. 

“Look, we have to know what we’re dealing with,” Tony tried to reason.

“You have no right to watch those,” Peter spat back. Tony sighed. Yet again, the kid was probably right. He was always too nosy for his own good. Tony swiped his hand, and the hologram vanished.

“All gone. Happy now?” Peter didn’t answer, and for a few moments, no one spoke. All eyes were trained on the boy.

“Pe-ter,” he said, testing out the name. “I like it.”

“Glad to hear it,” Tony responded tentatively, very aware that he was likely on thin ice with the kid in front of him because of the videos. Silence took over for another minute. Peter swept his eyes over the team again.

“So who are you guys anyway? Are you army or what?” Peter asked.

“Have you seen what we’re wearing?” Clint asked with a broad smile on his face.

“We’re not soldiers,” Tony answered. “Well, some of us used to be,” he said with a glance toward Steve and Bucky, “but that was a long time ago. Now, we’re the Avengers.” To everyone’s surprise, Peter started to chuckle, which slowly built into deep and hysterical laughter. The team stood in disbelief, watching the cackling teen in front of them.

“Sorry, sorry,” Peter said through his slowing giggles. “It’s just—God, I’d love to see the look on Doctor Anton’s face if he knew I went willingly with Hydra’s mortal enemy.”

“So you’ve heard of us,” Steve stated.

“I’ve heard that you’re the scourge of the earth, that you think you save people but end up making things infinitely worse, that you’re a rag-tag group of murderers.” The room went silent for a moment, until Natasha spoke up.

“And what do you think?” she said steadily. All hints of a smile left Peter’s face.

“I think I’ll find out soon enough whether you’re the monsters they say you are.” He took a deep breath and stared at the floor for a few moments before raising his gaze. “Look, Hydra did horrible things to me. I know next to nothing about what an actual decent human relationship looks like, but I can imagine that torture doesn’t crop up too much in them. At the same time, Hydra raised me. They gave me food and water and a place to sleep. I… I know it’s wrong, Stockholm Syndrome or something, but I can’t hate them. Not yet. Not when all I’ve ever known is their care.”

“That makes sense,” Bruce said levelly. The jet was on autopilot, so he was free to interact with the rest of the group. “We don’t expect this to be an easy transition for you, but we will be there to support you through it. Then, given time, you can come to your own stance as to which side is right. That sound okay?” Peter looked into Bruce’s eyes for several seconds, looking for some hint of a deception, but came up empty. Slowly, he nodded. Tony, meanwhile, was immensely grateful for Bruce’s calm and logical manner.

The jet was already nearing New York, and Bruce told everyone to take a seat and prepare for landing. Peter crawled his way out of the cockpit and propelled himself up into his web where he landed delicately. The team of Avengers watched the way he maneuvered with a strange blend of awe and disturbance before taking their own seats.

After the jet touched down on the landing pad of the Avengers’ tower, Bruce shut off the engines and opened the back hatch. Peter was the first out of the plane and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the view. His entire life, all he had known was the concrete walls of his prison, and this—this was too much in the best way imaginable. An entire city was sprawled out beneath him, and he could see all of it. He swept his eyes back and forth over the immense scene and limped slowly, toward the railing at the edges of the landing pad. He leaned over the railing and nearly lost his breath at the sheer drop below him, which had to be nearly a hundred stories.

Tony couldn’t help but feel endeared by the kid as he took in the sights and watched the boy amusedly along with the rest of the team. Regaining his composure, Peter realized that he was being watched when a devilish plan formed in his mind. He turned around with a big smile, his arms spread wide and yelled toward the team, “Are you guys seeing this?” Slowly he started stepping backward toward the railing. “This is amazing!” he said until he felt the railing hit his back at which point he lost his balance, and his momentum carried him right over the edge of the building.

The team immediately started screaming, Tony’s yell being the loudest, and they went rushing to the railing where Peter had fallen. Upon reaching it, they looked over the edge to see Peter laughing hysterically, stuck to the window of the building about five feet below the railing.

“Fucking hell,” Tony declared as he started to march away. Peter just laughed harder until he pushed off the window with his feet and launched himself up and over the railing, while completing a full frontflip. 

“You—” Peter stopped to catch his breath from the laughter. “You should have seen your faces.” After overcoming his initial shock, Clint watched the boy with mischievous approval.

“That was a good one, kid,” Clint admitted. “We’re gonna have to team up sometime. With our powers combined, these chumps will never know what hit ‘em.” Peter grinned back at Clint.

“Sounds like a plan.”

Steve looked on at the two of them with a brewing mixture of disbelief and disapproval, quickly joined by Natasha. Clint threw his arm over Peter’s shoulder, and the pair started walking off toward the elevator. “C’mon, let’s meet the rest of the gang. You’re going to fit right in here.”

* * *

“Wanda, give me my damn bagel back,” Scott complained, while he fruitlessly grabbed for it. Said bagel was hovering just out of his reach, suspended by Wanda’s signature red wisps of magic. Thor’s deep bellowing laugh resounded throughout the common area, while Sam looked on in amusement. Just then, the door suddenly burst open revealing an obviously angry Tony. No longer interested in toying with Scott, Wanda let go of the bagel. Unfortunately, Scott was also distracted by Tony, and the bagel fell right onto his head before falling on the floor.

“What’s up, Tony? Did something go wrong with the mission?” Wanda asked. Tony scoffed as he marched inside and collapsed into a chair, looking exhausted.

“Oh, something went wrong, alright. He’s about five foot six and a manipulative little cretin.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Just then, the door swung open again. The rest of the Avengers filtered inside looking similarly exhausted. Bringing up the rear was Clint with his arm still wrapped around Peter’s shoulder. The three original inhabitants of the room’s eyes were all drawn immediately to the young boy.

“Gang, I’d like you to meet Peter. He’s gonna be staying with us.” Clint nudged Peter forward a bit.

“Ah! You must be the manipulative little cretin Tony informed us of,” said Thor loudly. Peter quirked an eyebrow upward but otherwise didn’t react.

“I’m impressed, kid,” said Scott, pushing himself up from his chair and moving over to where Peter stood. “It took me a week and a half to earn that title from Tony.” He stuck his hand out for Peter to shake. “Scott Lang. Nice to meet ya.” Peter grinned up at Scott as he shook his hand.

After Thor, Wanda, and Sam each had a chance to introduce themselves, Bruce spoke up. “We should probably get you down to medical, Peter, so I can properly clean and bandage your leg. I’d also like to run some tests just to make sure you’re otherwise healthy. I also highly doubt they were keeping you up-to-date on your vaccines over there, so we can get that taken care of.”

“Perfect!” exclaimed Tony. “I was looking for an excuse to stab him with needles.” Peter immediately tensed up at this.

“No needles,” Peter declared. Bruce looked over at him sympathetically, while Tony just scoffed.

“Well you’re gonna have to suck it up, kid. Hate to break it to you, but the Avengers are officially pro-vaccination,” said Tony.

“Actually, there might be a way around it,” said Bruce. “I and a few other scientists have been working on a transdermal system of vaccine administration. Now might be as good a time as any to break it out. Unfortunately, we’ll still have to draw blood, but one needle is at least better than a dozen.” He turned toward Peter. “What do you say?” Peter looked hesitant but eventually nodded and followed Bruce out of the room.

Once they had left, Sam spoke up, “So, may I ask why we’re taking in a random twelve year old?”

“We found him at the HYDRA base,” answered Steve. “He was one of their experiments and was trying to escape. He took out six of their guards single handedly and unarmed. He had nowhere to go, and we couldn’t just leave him.”

“You’re telling me that little shrimp took out six guards?” Scott asked disbelievingly. Steve nodded solemnly.   


“He’s enhanced,” Natasha explained, “in a lot of different ways.”

“I’ll be damned.”

Meanwhile, in the medlab, Bruce had cleaned the bullet wound in Peter’s leg—it already looked a lot better than it had at first—and was in the process of properly bandaging it. “That’s about all we can do for that at the moment. Now comes the hard part. I’m gonna have to draw your blood.” Peter flinched when Bruce pulled out the needle, as vivid memories bubbled up of being strapped down to the metal table at the Hydra base and being injected with who knows what. He grit his teeth and looked away as Bruce stuck it into his vein.

“What the hell,” Bruce muttered under his breath when the blood poured out into the vial. It was almost a pink color instead of the typical vivid red. For a minute, both he and Peter stood staring at the strange liquid. Finally, something clicked in Bruce’s mind. “Peter, you said that you’re a human-spider hybrid, right?” Peter nodded, unsure where this was going. “Spiders, like most invertebrates have a substance called hemolymph, which is colorless, instead of blood. It could be that your body produces both, which would explain the color.”

“That… is weird,” Peter eventually said. Bruce heartily agreed with him. After drawing several vials of Peter’s blood, Bruce extracted the needle and wiped away the excess blood with a cotton ball. As Bruce worked, Peter’s thoughts turned back to Tony. He had to admit that he felt guilty for pulling that stunt on the roof, and he hoped that Tony wasn’t still angry with him. Peter had never been looked at as a real person—he was always just an experiment—but when Tony looked at him, he felt human, which was ironic, he supposed, considering he wasn’t even fully human anymore. Either way, Peter wanted to see through whatever this new situation was, and he hoped he hadn’t ruined his chance to do so by scaring everyone.

Before long, Bruce was done fussing over Peter. “You can take the elevator back up to the common area. I’m gonna stay down here for a bit to run some tests, but one of them will show you to where you’ll be staying.” Peter nodded and made his way to the elevator, which started its ascent without him doing anything. When the doors opened again, Peter saw the rest of the Avengers huddled around the long dining table. When the elevator dinged, everyone turned to look at him, and he fidgeted awkwardly in place. Ultimately, he knew that the snarky facade he put up was just that, a mask, and right now it was cracking with his exhaustion. He looked toward Tony and was relieved to see that the man didn’t appear outwardly angry with him anymore.

“Um, Dr. Banner said that one of you could show me to where I’m staying,” Peter said after no one else spoke up. Seemingly snapped out of his trance, Tony clapped his hands together.

“Right. You’re probably exhausted. Lots of new people and all. We’ve got a spare room down the hall for you.” Tony pushed himself up from the counter he was leaning on and gestured for Peter to follow him as he started off down the hall. It was a long hall, with a series of doors on either side. On each of the doors there was a symbol, which Peter assumed were made to represent the resident’s superhero identity. There was an American flag for Captain America, a black spider with a red hourglass on its back for Black Widow, a bow and arrow for Hawkeye, and so on. Eventually, they came to a door that didn’t have a symbol on it. Tony pushed the door open to reveal a large bedroom, with two doors leading off into a private bathroom and a walk-in closet respectively. On the foot of the bed was a small stack of clothes neatly folded. “I went ahead and grabbed you some of my old clothes, so we can get you out of that god-awful onesie that Hydra had you in. They’ll probably be a bit big, but we can get you some of your own clothes maybe tomorrow.” Peter was speechless. His entire life, all he had known was his tiny concrete cell. He turned and looked Tony in the eyes.

“Mr. Stark, this is too much,” Peter eventually managed to croak out. Tony met his gaze and offered a small smile.

“None of that. Kid,” Tony took a deep breath, “Hydra stole your life. You deserve to experience the world beyond the cage they kept you in.” Despite himself, Peter felt his big, round eyes start to well with tears. Tony grinned at him. “Just promise me you’ll never pull another stunt like you did on the roof.” A chuckle escaped its way through Peter’s lips.

“Deal.” After Tony left and closed the door behind him, Peter tentatively crawled forward before standing to look at the clothes Tony had left for him. There was a pair of gray sweatpants, a NASA t-shirt, and a plain gray hoodie. The fabric was so much softer than his Hydra uniform, and for a minute he just stood transfixed, running the fabric through his fingers. He then made his way into the bathroom and was once again amazed by what he saw. Everything was so pristine and white. He made his way over to the shower and twisted the knob to turn it on. After stripping out of his Hydra uniform, he stepped into the shower before immediately jumping back. The water was warm! The showers at the Hydra base only had one setting, which was frigid. Carefully, he stepped back into the shower, and was instantly hit with a euphoric sensation of the warm water drenching his body.

After he finished in the shower, he toweled off and got changed into the clothes Tony had left for him. They were baggy on him, but they were leagues more comfortable than his uniform. Back in the bedroom, he shot a web across the length of the room and attached the end from his wrist to the opposite wall. Then he swung himself up onto the single strand of web and got to work. Five minutes later, his web hammock was complete, and he collapsed into it. He was asleep within sixty seconds.


End file.
